METALCORE DROPSOUTS MOSH INTO CHICAGO

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY JIM HELMECY

On a beautiful warm Saturday evening in Chicago, things were about to heat up even more when the Metalcore Dropouts tour came knocking at the door. With co-headliners Fit for a King and The Devil Wears Prada, and brutal supporting acts Landmvrks and Counterparts, they were going to blow the roof off the Radius Chicago.

One of the city’s newer live music venues. Radius opened in early 2020, with the pandemic unfortunately following not long after. The 55,000-square-foot former steel factory turned venue can accommodate 2,500-3,800 fans depending on the setup, has been transformed into a modern artistic venue, displaying mural work by local and international artists and outfitted with stunning light fixtures to complement the murals. A previous press release notes that “the venue is equipped with a state of the art KSL sound system, exceptional acoustics, a mezzanine level to host VIP guests/packages, lavish artist lounges, a spacious outdoor smoking section, and nine full-service bars where guests can indulge in craft beers and specialized cocktails.” Cermak Hall, a 10,000-square-foot multi-purpose event space with a capacity of 1,350 guests and its own entrance, a full bar, and an additional stage, is also located within Radius, and serves as a pre-and post-event space for attendees. This would be my first visit to the venue, and I certainly don’t intend to make it the last. Though the parking situation could be improved upon, it is not the worst in the city. If you’re going to a show here, arrive early to give yourself enough time to find a parking spot on a side street or you can expect to pay a premium for their next-door lot.

As fans lined up in front of the building, and down the street, the atmosphere was one of excitement and time to release some week-long aggression on this Saturday night.

LANDMVRKS

As some of the fans were still trickling in the door, the house lights dimmed and Landmvrks opened their set with “Lost in a Wave” and the boys from Marseille, France were out and running. Within the first minute of the song, an enormous pit opened up in the center of the almost capacity floor, swallowing up any unsuspecting crowd member. Crowd surfers hit the barricade and photo pit with such frequency, it was like playing old-school Donkey Kong trying to dodge barrels, or the fans in this instance. With this being only the first song, we could tell it was going to be a wild night. During the band's 3rd song “ Blistering” is when security looked overwhelmed by the amount of bodies coming over the rail. This was pretty much the norm for the whole set. Security looked exhausted after this set, and this was just the beginning. With the numerous amounts of metalcore shows I’ve been to over the years, this was the most crowd-surfing I’ve seen for an opening band. Landmvrks played a devastating 6 song set, that got the fans warmed up for the rest of the evening. Songs on this set included “Rainfall”, “Death”, “Visage”, and “Self-Made Black Hole”.

COUNTERPARTS

After a brief intermission, the crowd gathered their strength for Hamilton, Ontario’s Counterparts. A band that’s been around since 2007 doesn’t come out with some mediocre song, they opened the set with one of their heavy hitters “Love Me”, and the crowd immediately jumped in and screamed the words along with frontman Brendan Murphy. This was a night for surfing, and again during this song, the waves hit the barricade and security guards. During the band’s second song “Unwavering Vow”, which starts with some fast blast beats, the floor opened up again into 2 massive circle pits, With the floor being at almost capacity now, the pits were more intense and packed full of more bodies. This was another set packed with fan and band intensity.

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA

The Devil Wears Prada are a band whose reputation precedes them. With a hard-hitting and intense live reputation, this was definitely the right band to have as a co-headliner for this tour. Releasing their 8th studio album ‘Color Decay’ last September, and releasing a deluxe edition on May 5th, TDWP has established themselves as metalcore bar raisers. As the crowd regrouped and was ready for round three, TDWP opened with “Exhibition” and you could just feel an energy shift with the crowd going into high gear. During “Danger: Wildman”, you could see the crowd starting to get into this set, with them singing, and making the floor bounce again, this set was going to be epic. During TDWP 4tgh song of the set “Salt”, the fans began to take over and overwhelmed the venue security with crowd surfers, we lost count at around 65, it started out lightly, and turned into a flash flood of bodies. The Devil Wears Prada played a blistering 13-song set, which included “Watchtower”, “ Dez Moines”, “Chemical”, “Broken”, “Reasons”, “Sacrifice” and closing the set with “Hey John, What’s You’re Name Again”.

FIT FOR A KING

Now Fit for a King has been around for a few. Since 2007 the band slowly picked up pace, with numerous member changes over the years, Fit for a King has grown into a metalcore powerhouse. With numerous headlining tours, a massive fan base, and now upgrades to their stage production, you can see why Fit can pack the fans in. Opening the set with “Annihilation”, another massive pit opened up and crowd surfing began. Fans matched word for word with frontman Ryan Kirby, bassist Tuck O’Leary was high flying off the stage riser along with guitarist Dan Gailey. Drummer Trey Celaya kept the pit going with the heavy beats. We finished up our third song in the photo pit which was “Falling Through the Sky” from the band’s new album ‘The Hell We Create’. Security hurried us along out of the pit, being overwhelmed again from the beginning of this set, they wanted us photographers out. So of course like any Fit for a King show, I pack my camera bag, put it in a safe place, and fight my way through the pits and fans to make the barricade to enjoy the show. I love what I do as a photographer, it’s an adrenaline rush, but to ride the barricade and lock eyes with the singer while you’re singing to each other is a whole different feeling. Crowd surfers were nonstop during this set, surges from the pit behind us were pushing us harder against the barricade. My arms and others were weak and weary from hoisting people over the barricade to security. I was there for 10 of the 14 songs of the set, much respect for the ones that held their ground for the entire show. This set was definitely one of the heavier ones I’ve got to witness. Some deep tracks like “Slave to Nothing”, “Deathgrip” and “Pissed Off”, made this one hell of a set. Other songs included in this set were “Eyes Roll Back”, “Vendetta”, “When Everything Means Nothing”, and closing the set with “God of Fire”. Tonight the fans gave everything to the bands, the bands returned it back, and security looked like they just fought Mike Tyson. Much respect for barricade security for handling the onslaught of surfers tonight. There are plenty of dates left to catch this tour and have the experience of a lifetime.